Editorial of the Special Issue “Geomorphology, Geoheritage, Geoparks and Geotourism in Volcanic Areas”

Volcanic landscapes represent very attractive sites for the population, and offer many resources to the communities that live within them (soils, materials, energy, and tourism) (Figure 1). However, the main attraction that volcanoes offer is related to volcanic heritage and geotourism. For this reason, the international journal Geosciences has published this Special Issue entitled “Geomorphology, Geoheritage, Geoparks and Geotourism in Volcanic Areas”. The main aim of this volume was to identify, characterize and evaluate the potential and the opportunities offered by volcanic geomorphology, as well as the geoheritage, geoparks and geotourism, for the societies who are living around active or non-active volcanic areas. The benefits of volcanic landscapes include different tendencies, methods, techniques and research interests regarding the volcanic geomorphology, geomorphosites/geosites, geoheritage, geoparks and geotourism in natural or urban environments.

This Special Issue includes eleven research papers from seven different countries (Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Chile and Costa Rica) and two continents (Europe and North America). Ten volcanic areas were studied (Ireland, Costa Rica, Canary Islands, Campo de Calatrava, Swabian Alb, Chinyero, Northerm Chile, Chaîne des Puys, Capraia Island and Island of Guadeloupe), along with six geoparks (Bur-ren-Cliff of Moher, Cooper Coast and Marble Arch-Caves in Ireland; El Hierro, Lanzarote-Archipelago Chinijo in Spain and Swabian Alb in Germany), and one geopark project was also studied (Campo de Calatrava in Spain).

The ages of the eruptive materials in studied volcanic areas were very different. The chronology of volcanism analyzed ranged from territories with ancient volcanism (Capraia Island in Italy, Calatrava in Spain) and non-active volcanism (Ireland) to areas with recently active volcanism and historical eruptions (Canary Islands in Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, Chaîne des Puys and Island of Guadeloupe in France) (Figure 2).

The main topics covered by this Special Issue include volcanoes, geomorphology, geoheritage, geodiversity, geomorphosites, geoparks, geoconservation, geotourism and urban geotourism. The eleven research papers covered most of the topics raised in the Special Issue, although geotourism [1,2,3,4], geoheritage, [1,3,5,6,7], geodiversity [1,3,8,9] and geology and geomorphology [10,11] in volcanic landscapes were the most analyzed subjects, while urban geotouristic itineraries was the least studied topic. In this sense, many of the articles deal with different aspects of the proposed topics around the volcanoes in an integrated way, and with emphasis on the volcanic geomorphology, geodiversity, geoheritage and geotourism of the volcanic areas studied in this Special Issue.

All research papers submitted to the Special Issue showed a high level of scientific quality and were in accordance with the topics and objectives proposed. At the same time, the different scientific studies employed diverse and innovative methods for studying volcanoes, which will certainly be of reference for future research related to geomorphology, geoheritage and geotourism in active and non-active volcanic areas.